Mayor Dayne Walling is obviously guilty of brinksmanship when he says he’ll be forced to lay off 57 police officers and 23 firefighters if they don’t accept pay cuts. But he’s also telling the truth about the situation the city’s in. The city is in a deep, dank hole, thanks in part to mismanagement by The Former Mayor Who Shall Not Be Named. So he has three choices: Cut staff, lower salaries or follow the same financial path as his predecessor and commit deficitery. (Which is sort of like adultery, only with money. The Former Mayor Who Shall Not Be Named was a major deficiterer.)

The term “new reality” keeps coming to mind. We’d all like a cop and a firefighter on every corner, but the new reality in Michigan is, as the mayor put it, doing the best with what you have. And Flint doesn’t have much right now.

If I were Walling, I’d spread the misery and trim pay for all city workers before I laid anyone off. Taking someone’s job in this economy is beyond cruel.

No one’s a bigger supporter of police and fire than I am, still I think it’s wrong of Raul Garcia, president of Flint Firefighters Union Local 352, to drag the four children who died in that fire last week into a salary dispute. If he knows for a fact that they’d have been saved if the city had more fire stations, that’s one thing. But he doesn’t. He himself said, “Only God knows that one.” Then don’t use them to further your own cause. That’s unseemly.

Show of hands. Anyone surprised that Sam Riddle got a hung jury, and thus a reprieve, in his corruption trial in Detroit? Didn’t think so. Riddle is one of those guys who seem to have nine lives. But since 11 jurors seemed ready to convict, the case against him must be pretty strong.

After the mistrial was declared, Riddle said, “The American system of justice worked.” Not yet, Sam. But I have a feeling it soon will, unless prosecutors allow him to cut a plea deal, which I fervently hope they won’t.

Andre Rison as a leader of young men at Northwestern High School? The guy who spent a month in jail for not paying child support? The guy who was suspended by the NFL for repeatedly violating the league’s substance abuse policy? What suddenly qualifies him to coach teenagers? Ah, yes. Celebrity.

Tiger Woods doesn’t owe anybody an apology other than his wife and kids.

The Grand Blanc chapter of the American Business Women’s Association is collecting bed, bath and kitchen items to donate to the Shelter of Flint. To help, drop off items at Kelly’s Country Cutter, 11702 S. Saginaw, Grand Blanc, by the end of the month. For more information, call Elizabeth Miller, (810) 694-3426.

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it” – William James (1842-1910), U.S. psychologist, philosopher.